Introduction: Context and limits

The topic of the working conference on self and society is premised on a fundamental theme in the “Two Social Psychologies” literature (Stryker, 1977; House, 1977; Cartwright, 1979; Stephan & Stephan, 1985). The literature argues the considerable costs attending the mutual ignorance characterizing the social psychologies produced by sociologists and by psychologists. It argues that much could be gained were practitioners of each social psychology familiar with the theories, conceptualizations, and findings of the other social psychology and were they to recognize those theories, conceptualizations, and findings in their own theorizing and research.

The conference topic asks participants to consider the relevance of the social cognitive perspective for sociological conceptions of the relationships of self and society. Since the social cognitive perspective per se characterizes contemporary psychological social psychology – Markus and Zajonc (1985: 137) go so far as to assert that contemporary social psychology is defined as the study of the social mind – and interest in the self-society relationship is fundamental to sociological social psychology, the conveners of this conference in defining its topic point participants to a focus on the potential contributions of contemporary theorizing and research in psychological social psychology to the sociological variety of social psychology.